The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination today concluded its eighty-fourth session after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Honduras, Montenegro, Belgium, Poland, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg and Switzerland on how these countries are implementing the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. It also adopted its report of the session.

During the session, in addition to reviewing the eight country reports, the Committee held public informal meetings with non-governmental organizations from the countries under review, and briefed States parties on new working methods as well as on General Recommendation 34 on combating racial discrimination against people of African descent, and General Recommendation 35 on combating racist hate speech.

At the closing meeting this afternoon Dilip Lahiri, Rapporteur of the Committee, presented the draft report of the eighty-third and eighty-fourth sessions. Mr. Lahiri said he had included in the report a number of situations considered by the Committee under its early warning and urgent action procedure. Also included was a list of States parties whose reports were seriously overdue, as well as information on follow-up to reports submitted by State parties under article 9 of the Convention. Individual communications received and dealt with were also part of the report. The report was then adopted by the Committee.

In concluding remarks the Chairperson of the Committee, Jose Francisco Cali Tzay, thanked committee members for their work during a particularly busy session. In addition to eight country reports, the Committee had examined one individual case, four cases under the early warning process and four States parties under follow-up procedures. The Chairperson expressed satisfaction with the work accomplished.

The concluding observations and recommendations for the States parties reviewed this session will be made available on the Committee’s webpage.

The next session of the Committee will be held from 11 to 29 August 2014, when it will review the reports of El Salvador, Estonia, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Peru, Sudan, and the United States of America.